Expert Quotes
"The Gulf Coast region has a proud history of providing energy for our nation. However the hurricanes of 2005 showed us all the price we pay for the loss of our coastal wetlands."
"Without a healthy, sustainable coast, there can be no energy production, fisheries, ports and transportation routes to carry the nation's commerce or wildlife habitat for thousand of different species of animals and plants."
-Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
"When Katrina and Rita hit, that forged the idea for the America's Energy Coast. When our infrastructure goes down, your lights go out. When the Mississippi River ports shut down, you feel it everywhere."
-Mary Landrieu, U. S. Senator
"We are all faced with the same reality that there are natural and governmental forces that work against us. We need to put all these resources together and really begin to speak with a shared voice."
-R. King Milling
Chairman, America's WETLAND Foundation
"It is just a lack of knowledge of how critical this area is to the nation's security. I want the AEC to be a forum for the challenges of sustaining the coast as a supplier of the nation's energy needs. To solve the numerous problems we face along the Gulf Coast, we have to find common ground that will be the basis for solutions."
-Mark Hurley, President of Shell Pipeline Co. and AEC Industry Council chair
"But over the past year, energy, environmental, conservation, civic, governmental and research representatives have taken their seats at the table, and the first accord for a new sustainability of the Gulf Coast is imminent."
-Valsin A. Marmillion, Managing Director, America's WETLAND Foundation and AEC leader
"We need more natural approaches, environmental engineering solutions that include harnessing the power of the Mississippi to replenish the marshes. But it must not damage navigation. The whole idea is to take benefits of one sector and make sure they accrue to the benefit of other sectors"
"There is a certain urgency because we are facing challenges today that other coastal states will not face for another 25 or 30 years. What we dor of fail to do will have lasting consequences-and we won't be able to turn back the clock."
-Robert Twilley, Louisiana State University oceanography professor and AEC Policy Committee Co-Chiar
"Issues like habitat restoration and water quality are directly related to the amount of wetlands-and those issues are not constrained by political boundaries. We realize whatever is good for one state in that consortium is good for all the states."
-Bill Walker,
MS Department of Marine Resources and Co-chair AEC Task Force on Community, Culture and Infrastructure
"The landscape of the Gulf Coast is a national treasure-an ecological, economic and cultural treasure that is slipping away. As a country we need to understand that restoring this landscape is not just a big expense; it's an important investment that will yield returns for generations to come.
- Susan Kaderka
Director of the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf States Natural Resource Center and Co-Chair AEC Ecosystem Vulnerabilities Task Force
"This system is moving 123 million tons of goods a year, most of it petroleum or petrochemical products. Erosion is one of our major problems ... we are hoping to direct some action from Congress."
-Raymond Butler, Director of the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way
Co-Chair, AEC Transportation, Navigation and Infrastructure Task Force
"There is a worldwide shortage of mariners. We see the need for high-level, integrated thinking about issues that will affect us for the next 100 years, all the way from the need for mariners to the land loss."
-Sam Giberga, Chief Administrative Officer of Hornbeck Marine and Co-Chair, AEC Transportation, Navigation and Infrastructure Task Force